Horrible Histories Horrible Christmas Show, The Lowry, Salford

Rebecca Hay

What a cracking show this is! Educational, but hilariously funny too and one not to miss before the festive season grinds to a halt at the beginning of January.

Writer Terry Deary first published the Horrible Histories books in 1993 and now they have been successfully changed into stage shows with great effect. Horrible Christmas is a panto style show with lots of history thrown in too, I bet not many people know that until a Coca Cola advert was made, Father Christmas's coat was green and not red and A Christmas Carol has been made into a film 28 times.

The show is two hours including an interval and is a roller coaster of fun as your journey sees you follow a writer struggling to create a story, a girl wanting to open her Christmas presents early and Sydney Claus and his sidekick Rudolph who want to ban Christmas forever.

The cast are excellent and take you through history at high speed with lots of corny jokes, audience participation and a good old fashioned sing song. The star of the show by a mile is Neal Foster who takes on the role of several historical figures including Charles Dickens and Henry VIII and he has you laughing all the way.

Sydney Claus is played excellently too by Chris Gunter and his sidekick Rudolph is a hoot and acted with great enthusiasm by Ashley Bowden. Rebecca Livermore is great in her role as Wendy Watson and Lauryn Redding provide a great asset as Shirley Holmes.

It's hard to make history seem appealing to children and adults too, but this show does this with aplomb and has you going home with a smile on your face - what more could you ask for at Christmas?!